Ethereum and its layer-2 scaling solution, Polygon, are trading well below their all-time high. However, analysts’ expectations of altcoin projects for 2022 differ greatly. Some argue that ETH and MATIC will end the year at these lows, while others predict a bull run. Let’s look at the price predictions of these two altcoins together.
Ethereum price prediction: What are analysts expecting?
Investors can view the Ethereum price prediction from two aspects: bulls and bears. Bull-side analysts predict that Ether will go up to $4,500 in 2022. Experts with a bearish outlook believe that Ethereum will fall as low as $600 in the near term. Both views have arguments that strengthen their foundations. There are good reasons for people with a bullish outlook to expect an uptrend. Accordingly, ETH adoption continued to increase in 2022. The network still leads the way in growth in developer count and transaction volume.
In addition, the Ethereum Merge upgrade is expected to be completed this year. Merge will migrate Blockchain from Proof-of-Work model to Proof-of-Stake. The upgrade is very important for Ethereum, which aims to reduce transaction fees as well as improve scalability. It is also an important milestone for the network to achieve its goal of Ethereum 2.0. Currently, 300 transactions occur per second on the Blockchain. However, with the upgrade, this figure is estimated to rise to 100,000. Additionally, the crypto market is currently in a state of “extreme fear”. Accordingly, the current demand is quite low. However, this also increases the possibility of a market rally in the future.
Can ETH drop to $600?
There are not few analysts who have a bearish view on Ethereum price action. The biggest thesis of the advocates of this view is the macroeconomic environment around the world. Nearly all asset classes fell in the first half of 2022, indicating that the risk aversion market continues. As a result, the fear of a “Crypto Winter” still reigns in the market. Ethereum trading volume has been slowing in recent months amid fears of pullbacks in overall consumer spending.
Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin recently expressed his concerns regarding NFT trading. Many NFT markets, such as OpenSea, value non-fungible tokens on Ethereum. Therefore, a drop in the NFT wave, which is closely linked to crypto, could negatively affect the price of Ether. Also, Ethereum is facing increasing competition from other layer-1 blockchains. These include “Ethereum Killers” such as Solana, Cardano, and Avalanche. The fact that these Blockchain networks outperform ETH in terms of scalability and expense fuels the bearish outlook. Also, as we reported on cryptokoin.com, the collapse of Terra also created distrust in the overall crypto market and affected ETH.
What do analysts say for Ethereum price?
Let’s go back to the analysts’ views. Conservative experts predict a price tag of $1,826 in 2022 for the price of Ether. However, other analysts predict that the price will go up to $5,783. According to the views of the same analysts, ETH will reach $2,630 or $11,764 in 2025. Conservative analysts expect $3,745 for 2030. However, aggressive analysts set a price target of $23,372.
Polygon price prediction: Will MATIC reach $5?
First, let’s examine the price outlook of altcoin MATIC in the short term. According to CoinMarketCap data, Polygon was trading at $0.5814 at the time of writing. The token is down 8.49% compared to the previous day. Accordingly, MATIC is quite far from its all-time high of $3. It’s also pretty close to its $0.50 price tag. But that means it could be a good value to buy right now.
Most analysts have more conservative estimates of the MATIC price. However, TradingEducation predicts that MATIC may not only exceed $10 by 2025, but may explode as well. Global financial education site Polygon predicts it could reach $15.13 by the end of 2025. Additionally, it suggests that it could reach up to $54.85 for 2030. However, DigitalCoinPrice is more conservative and predicts the coin will only reach $2.98 by 2030 at best. Accordingly, if you had invested $1,000 in Polygon now, you would have made a profit of $1,587 at worst.